Palmer far from sorry over snipe at Mayor

CLIVE Palmer says he stands by the derogatory comments he made about Townsville City Council Mayor Jenny Hill during a speech at the opening of his campaign headquarters.

Mr Palmer was slammed after a video emerged of him calling Cr Hill a “b* tch” during a speech for the opening of his United Australia Party headquarters in Townsville on Wednesday.

The controversial billionaire did not immediately respond for comment but yesterday released a statement saying he would not back down.

“I was responding to the fact that the Mayor of Townsville had called me a criminal, among other untruthful and damaging things,” he said.

“My wording was harsh, however, I stand by my criticism of the Mayor, who has caused devastation in her city by working against QNI.”

A spokesman for Cr Hill said the Mayor would not be responding to Mr Palmer’s comments, and that others would judge what the aspiring Member of Parliament has said.

The controversy comes as British band Chumbawamba forced Mr Palmer to take down a YouTube video that used their hit song Tubthumping.

Mr Palmer posted a video that showed a group of men, who appeared to be QNI workers, singing the song on his Youtube and Twitter accounts in June.

But media reports say Chumbawamba wrote to Mr Palmer demanding he take the video down earlier this month.

The band have also alleged Mr Palmer plagiarised the song’s lyrics on a number of billboards in Queensland.

The billboards read: “When we get knocked down, we get up again. Brisbane’s never gonna keep Townsville down. Go Townsville – go Clive”.

Chumbawamba told media they would take legal action against Palmer if he did not take the billboards down.

A spokesman for the UAP said the issue was being dealt with by lawyers and declined to comment further.